Uniform Allocation Issues
No. 380/22
Date: 22nd September 2022
Dear Colleagues
Uniform Allocation Issues
The Outdoor department has received a number of enquiries regarding comments made by the CEO Simon Thompson regarding uniform rollout. It was previously relayed to the Union some weeks ago by the National managers who have direct responsibility for this issue that the rollout might start to slow down due to “global supply chain issues outside of Royal Mails control”, but this was explained as minor delays.
However, it has been reported to us that Royal Mail’s CEO has seemingly replied to a comment on the company’s propaganda Workplace site attempting to blame the delays on the company’s ‘current financial situation’.
Whilst there are contradicting explanations to the delay from Royal Mail, our direct concerns, which are also shared by a number of branches and members, are the length of time before new uniforms will be available to individuals and the lack of plans to deal with the issues that this is beginning to cause, particularly as we head towards the winter period.
If the CEO’s comments are to be believed and the business do not foresee uniform being available for all employees until the New Year, then of course this is totally unacceptable.
Our joint code of practice which is included in (LTB 467/18) states in the first bullet point that there must be a ‘commitment from Royal Mail to supply the required uniform to all customer facing employees.’ Any attempts to blame delays on cost is a clear breach of the agreement and further confirmation of the disregard with which the Royal Mail current leadership holds its employees.
We have written to Royal Mail on this issue raising our concerns and are still awaiting a response and full explanation from them on whatever contingency plans need to be in place for our members who are faced without proper uniform allocation. This is particularly concerning as we approach the colder and busier months within the operation. As always we encourage branches and individual members to escalate the issues through the regular procedures including the IR Framework where necessary, and in particular where this is causing issues for our members in carrying out their day to day roles.
The CEO has clearly chosen to use the issue of uniform delays as a further opportunity to antagonize our members whilst attempting to justify his narrative around the company’s finances. We reiterate that we are making every possible representation to ensure that Royal Mail act responsibly in line with uniform agreements. The Outdoor department will update branches on any further correspondence.
Any queries to the content of the above please contact the Outdoor Department reference 500, email address: njones@cwu.org
Yours sincerely,
Mark Baulch CWU Assistant Secretary
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